Lockdown: There are hundreds of construction sites housing migrant labourers in Noida.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday extended the current lockdown to control the spread of coronavirus till May 3. But the highly contagious virus is not the only problem for India. Without work and wages, the migrant population is struggling to manage one meal a day. While COVID-19 cases and deaths can be quantified, it's nearly impossible to find out how many died of hunger.
India's coronavirus lockdown has taken the worst toll on migrant labourers.
While tens of thousands of migrant workers hitting roads in a bid to return to their hometowns and villages, those who stayed back in cities and towns are now desperate to somehow go back home.
With the lockdown extended, migrant workers say they will die of hunger before any virus can kill them.
Not far from New Delhi, there are hundreds of construction sites housing migrant labourers in Noida, in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. NDTV visited one such construction site in the industrial town's Sector 144. There are 237 workers who live here. Tribhuvan Kumar, supervisor at the construction site said, "The labourers here are from Bihar, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. They earn nothing anymore. They are just sitting." No work means no wages. And no wages means no food.
Putti Bai, a widow from Katni in Madhya Pradesh, came to Noida to earn money to repay the debt she incurred for her daughter's wedding. She is now stuck in Noida with no wages or food. Her wheat crop back home is ripe for harvest, but with an extension in lockdown, her crop too will be destroyed. Gulab Bai, who is from Putti Bai's home village, wonders how she will manage to feed her children if she is not paid in Noida.
Laxman Singh from Bihar asks if the government can fly people back from abroad, then why not send its own people back to their states. He says, "Send us home. Keep the sick people here."
Laxminarayan, another labourer from Bihar, threatens to walk back home like the countless others the government does not offer any relief for migrant workers during the lockdown.
"What choice do we have? We are poor. How much will the contractor feed us and for how long?" he says.
Laxman Singh, Laxminarayan, Putti Bai, Gulab Bai and all the other migrant workers the Noida camp have Aadhaar cards, but they say no government relief has reached them. They are dependent more often than not on goodwill and charity of those who distribute food in these camps. The labourers spend their days and nights anxious about their next meal and desperate to somehow get back home.